Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 25, 2006

The resolution, introduced by Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, was adopted. The San Francisco Unified School District is preparing to close, merge or relocate 14 schools in the city amid a storm of protest from angry parents, and Sandoval called Ackerman's severance pay a "platinum parachute" approved by a "lame duck" Board of Education.

"The $375,000 severance package could almost pay for 10 teachers for an entire year," the supervisor said, adding that parents have so far been unable to present Ackerman with a 1,500-signature petition asking her to give up the pay because "she has not attended a school board meeting in some time."

As relations between her and the school board deteriorated, Ackerman announced in September she would be retiring this June. She has continued to draw her $250,000 annual salary. Ackerman did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.

Dufty said Ackerman's leadership had resulted in "much more good happening at the school district than we had five or six years ago."

Maxwell reminded her colleagues that the school board had negotiated with Ackerman the severance clause of her contract. "They knew if they made it difficult for her, if they wanted her to leave, what the consequences would be," the supervisor said.

But others said it was inappropriate for Ackerman to be paid such a large amount. "These kinds of guarantees that corporate America has gotten used to should not be in the public sector," argued McGoldrick. Elsbernd noted that Ackerman already was being paid a high annual salary. "She was extremely well compensated," he said. "I strongly support this resolution."

Although the board's resolution cannot compel Ackerman to give up her severance payment, it did provoke a strong reaction from African American community leaders, including Rev. Amos Brown of the Third Baptist Church.

Brown, noting that Ackerman is the city's first black superintendent, suggested racism was behind the resolution and urged the supervisors "to leave the school district alone."

Ackerman oversaw her last school board meeting Tuesday night and received a standing ovation and heard from dozens of teachers, parents and community activists who spoke in her favor, thanking her for her work in the district.

In other action

-- The board voted 6-3 to approve legislation to require Planning Commission hearings for residents seeking to convert their property into condominiums.

-- Supervisor Sophie Maxwell introduced legislation to require developers to build affordable housing within one mile of their new market-rate housing projects. Current law allows the off-site affordable units to be built anywhere in the city.